Call for annual above-inflation tax rises

The Malaysian Public Health Specialists Association (PPPKAM) has urged the government to comply with its commitment in the World Tobacco Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) by increasing the tax on tobacco products every year starting with Budget 2015, according to a Bernama story.

The PPPKAM’s president, Dr Mohamed Rusli Abdullah, said in a statement that non-tax-related increases in the retail prices of cigarettes were ‘for the sake of profiting by the industry’.

He said the WHO and the World Bank had proposed periodic increases in tobacco taxes to ensure that the prices of all tobacco products rose by at least five percent more than the rate of inflation every year.